Judge Cannon warned not to be 'manipulated' by Trump in terse filing by Smith's team

Special counsel Jack Smith's team fired back at Donald Trump lawyer's and warned one of the judges against being "manipulated" by the former president's arguments.

A two-page filing from federal prosecutor Jay Bratt made in U.S. District judge Aileen Cannon's court in South Florida sought to bring her attention Thursday morning to a motion filed by Trump's team the night before in his Washington, D.C., case asking U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to pause all proceedings, reported The Messenger.

"Defendant Trump’s actions in the hours following the hearing in this case illustrate the point and confirm his overriding interest in delaying both trials at any cost," Bratt wrote. "This Court should [not] allow itself to be manipulated in this fashion."

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Trump's lawyers are asking Chutkan to shut down the election subversion case until she rules on whether a chief executive of the United States is immune from criminal proceedings, but Bratt complained that they "failed to disclose" their intention to make that argument in D.C. during a separate hearing Wednesday afternoon before Cannon, when they raised scheduling concerns over the two upcoming trials.

"As the Government argued to the Court yesterday, the trial date in the District of Columbia case should not be a determinative factor in the Court’s decision whether to modify the dates in this matter," Bratt wrote to Cannon.

The Trump-appointed Cannon signaled during the hearing that she was open to rescheduling the Mar-a-Lago classified documents trial, which is set for May, because of its proximity to the start of his D.C. case scheduled for March 4.

Chutkan has so far resisted the former president's efforts to delay that trial due to his 2024 White House campaign.